BRIAR’S POV
I run away, fleeing before I can hear any more heart-shattering words from Tavian. My chest constricts, suffocating me. I can’t breathe, and when I try, it feels like a struggle.
My heart races like a jackhammer, pounding in my ears.
I feel myself sinking deeper into a sea of despair, of crippling and crushing anxiety that reaches out from the shadows and pulls me in, drowning me.
Suddenly, the walls of the corridor draw closer, narrowing the path I escape through, dimming the lights until I’m running through a narrow, dark tunnel.
The floor beneath me turns to quicksand, sinking me into the ground, and I can’t run anymore.
I fold into a ball in a corner, holding myself tightly, rocking back and forth, shaking the thoughts that plague me away.
He didn’t mean it, I rem
